Gold glove announcements are coming tomorrow, and both Evan Grant and Jeff Wilson seem to think Michael Young could win the gold glove for the shortstop position.
Yes, that would be an enormous joke, but Wilson points out that Young's fielding percentage is great. He also, however, acknowledge that "his range is lacking," and I'm not sure how it makes sense to give the award for best fielder at a position to a guy with no range.
Grant walks through the argument, as well:
SS Michael Young might have a case. He led the AL in fielding percentage (.984), which was second in the majors to Philadelphia's Rollins. Young ranked fifth of eight qualifying AL shortstops in zone rating (.818), but led the AL in revised zone rating (.850), which attempts to refine the original formula for interpreting fielding efficiency. Young ranked just ahead of Philadelphia's Rollins (.849). Realize that a lot of folks don't buy into fielding percentage. But it, zone rating and revised zone rating seem to be the three closest things out there to definitive statistical evaluation of fielding. I think Young gets more votes than ever before and I think this comes down to Young vs. Chicago's Orlando Cabrera.
Now, I may be a bit foggy on this, but I seem to recall that there is a segment of the readership that thinks Young may be just a tad below average as a fielder. What happens in the managers and coaches in the AL vote Young the best fielder at his position. Does it sway you at all?
Derek Jeter won a gold glove while being one of the worst defensive shortstops in baseball. Nate McLouth winning this year has been discussed in a FanPost. So Young winning a GG while being a bad defensive shortstop would be just another piece of evidence as to why the gold glove balloting is the biggest joke in baseball.
However, the other thing that this would end up doing is making it harder, one would think, to sell the idea of Young changing positions. I think most of us acknowledge he's a liability in the field at the position, and needs to move...but selling the idea of moving him, even next offseason, if he's just a year away from winning a gold glove, would seem to be even harder.